What is a person? What makes a person valuable? If we strip away our social, economic and civilised definitions, what is left? Who are you? What makes you, you?
We live in an age where economically, persons are not particularly valuable. If we work and produce money to contribute to society through taxation or perhaps through some altruistic purposes, or through social and communal engagement, we can depend on a pretty good eulogy, from someone. But what if we cannot do those things?
The elderly in aged care are seen as a burden on families, the health system, and even society. We do not interact with the elderly in our siloed zones of school, work and socialising, unless one of our sectors is deliberately designed for them. An elderly person, unless known and loved by their families, loses their social value in a society where policy separates them from the rest of the world.
In their homes and segregated places, the process of ageing is in many ways humiliating. Becoming older we lose control of our bodies, our neurons, our financial and administrative affairs and eventually decline until we die.
But what if we lost control of those things when we were younger?
As a 42 year old woman I deeply resonated with the story of Alice, age 51, who begins to show signs of early onset alzheimers (EOA). A professor of psychology at Harvard University ( why is this college the definitive indicator of quality in literature and film?) specialising in linguistics, Alice, international speaker, mother of young adult children and all around success story, suddenly forgets where she is when running one day, in her own neighbourhood.
Despite catching it relatively early and trying all recommended treatment options, her synapses continue to decline. Anxious to exercise her memory daily, she runs through a list of questions for herself:
1) What month is it?
2) Where is your house?
3)Where is your office?
4) When is Anna's birthday?
5) How many children do you have?
In her list, which she keeps hidden from her husband and children, is a directive for her declining self to access a particular file on her computer which she enigmatically labels "Butterfly". The premise is that if she can no longer answer these questions, then her disoriented self can simply follow the instructions to give herself an overdose of strong sleeping pills which she procured when she was more cognitively sound.
However, the Alice which wrote these directives was in conflict with her actress daughter, who refused to go to college. The Alice of the past was constantly travelling, working and achieving and could never let things slide. The new Alice, the one whose synapses are slowing dying, is proud of her actress daughter ( whatever her name is) and just wants to be near her family. This Alice enjoys the taste of chocolate ice cream and likes to swirl her wine in her glass and taste the grape and oak.
So will the new Alice follow the directions?
Still Alice makes us think about about our self perception, our identity and the heart of who we are. Even if we should be given our baby grandchildren and not really know who we are holding, there is no disputing that a brand new baby smells perfect and feels divine in our arms.
If human beings are inherently valuable, then our humanity is not determined by our productivity or ability to contribute to society, or even our cognition abilities. So how to do we build a society where we express this truth?
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